OGC Web Services, Phase 5

The OGC Web Services, Phase 5 (OWS-5) Testbed was an initiative of OGC's Interoperability Program to collaboratively extend and demonstrate OGC's baseline for geospatial interoperability. The main development of OWS-5 was conducted from July 2007 to April 2008.

Major Achievements

Developed SOAP and WSDL interfaces for four foundation services: WMS, WFS-T, WCS-T, and WPS, allowing these services to be integrated into industry standard service chaining tools.

Service Implementations for WFS-T, WCS-T, WMS and WPS were deployed to demonstrate SOAP and WSDL binding patterns.

Demonstrated implementation and integration of IEEE-1451 TIM, NCAP and STWS components and refined the integration of IEEE-1451 sensors into the SOS framework.

Developed a BPEL script for SWE GeoReferenceable workflow. This workflow establishes a standardized means to allow the user to interactively access a subset pixels from a coverage service stored in the compressed JPEG2000 and preserve the image relationship with the associated ‘sensor’ model parameters such that precise geopositioning capabilities can be realized in a dynamic, interactive and networked environment. The OGC specifications used in this scenario include: JPIP enabled WCS-T 1.1, CS/W, WPS, SPS, SAS, and SOS.

A Conflation workflow process and BPEL script was designed and implemented to demonstrate service chaining and workflow, web processing services, and service interoperability using a variety of OGC service standards.

Successful design, implementation and testing of data view models to be harvested in a catalog.

The UML-GML Application Schema (UGAS) tool was enhanced to include: utilization of OCL constraints; schema generation based on ISO/TS 19139 encoding rules; and capability to integrate existing XML grammars based on XML attributes.

Specified how KML could be output from a geospatial database using three existing standards: WMS for the overall information request, WFS Filter for the query, and SLD for styling rules.

Completed proposal for a new OGC standard for Federated Geo-synchronization.

Developed an abstract core WFS module and a series of other modules that instantiate web-based data provisioning.

The Compliance and Interoperability Test and Evaluation (CITE) thread developed 6 compliance test suites. These tests are in beta and may be downloaded from CITE Developer Information.

Each of these threads of activity extended or refined a portion of the OGC Standards Baseline. OWS-5 Participants conducted Technology Integration Experiments (TIEs) of the components, where each TIE involved components developed independently by at least two organizations.

20 Engineering Reports (ERs) were written. The OWS-5 ERs were either technical specifications or reports regarding testing and analysis. The OWS-5 ERs have been posted to the OGC Specification Program Pending Documents list for consideration by OGC members in the consensus process. Most of these will result in documents that will be posted for public review as OGC Requests and or Discussion Papers prior to the formal adoption of some of them as OGC standards.

13 Demonstrations of the integrated capabilities of the OWS-5 components were performed during the Interoperability Day held in St. Louis on March 28, 2008. The demonstrations with a voice-over explaining the content was released as multi-media products on DVD media and via the web at http://www.opengeospatial.org/pub/www/ows5/index.html. For copies of the DVD, contact Sam Bacharach, Executive Director Outreach Program, OGC, Phone: +1 703-707-0261 sbacharach [at] opengeospatial.org

7 Sponsoring organizations who responded to a Call for Sponsors defined the requirements for OWS-5.

35 Organizations who responded to an May 2007 Request for Quotations (RFQ) and Call for Participation (CFP) participated in some aspect of OWS-5. Roles for organizations in OWS-5 included sponsors, participants and architects. Additionally there were many organizations that were observers of the initiative.

Future Work

About the OGC Interoperability Program

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) conducts the Interoperability Program (IP) as a global, hands-on and collaborative prototyping program for rapid development of proven candidate specifications for consideration for consensus adoption and public release by the OGC Specification Program. In OGC's interoperability initiatives, international technology developers and providers team together to solve specific geo-processing interoperability problems posed by the initiative's sponsoring organizations. OGC IP initiatives include test beds, pilot projects, interoperability experiments, and interoperability support services - all designed to encourage rapid development, testing, validation and adoption of open, consensus-based standards specifications.